Isabella de Fortibus or Isobel de Fortz.
Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of Devon and Albemarle.
1262-1293.
From the corbel at the Priory Church, Christchurch, Hampshire.
Isabella de Fortibus or Isobel de Fortz.
Isabella de Fortibus.
From Davenport Adams. ‘The Isle of Wight.’
A right noble Lady was Isabel de Fortibus! Well, indeed, was she worthy of her martial name—for one of the bravest hearts and most gallant spirits of a stormy time was the Lady of the Wight. It is not uninteresting to compare the character of this Island-Queen with that of the gracious Lady who, swaying with a firm hand half the civilized world, yet loves to enjoy the beauty and the solitude of the Garden Isle! And the historian may fitly point with exultation to the circumstance that the fair Island hath been the favored residence of two royal and illustrious Ladies, and proudly illustrate his honored chronicle with the names of Isabel and Victoria.
"Were I allowed to avail myself of the Romancist's privilege to fill up the dull outline of History with the living colours of individual character, or to crowd my canvas with this men and things of an almost forgotten Past, it would be no uninteresting labour to attempt to bring before the reader's eye the gallant state and noble
Court which surrounded the Lady Isabel in her Castle of Carisbrooke. How loyally, methinks, the Island-Knights would wait upon their Suzerain! "When she held high council, with what respect would they suggest their own ideas or courteously defer to her sovran will! And when the evening came, and the tall tapers lit up the banquet hall, and on the dais she sate in all her feminine dignity, attended by her women, how each noble knight would fill up his goblet to the brim, and pledge the health of the Lady of the Isle!
The prosperity of the Church and the welfare of the Commons seem to have been with her objects of special solicitude. The liberal grants of her ancestors to the Abbeys of Quarr, and Mantzbourg; her mother's donation of the manor of Shorwell to the nuns of Laycock,* in Wiltshire; the hundred churches with which was endowed the Abbey of Buckland in Devon; all these grants she ratified. And to the canons of Bolton she
*Her sister Margaret was one of the inmates of that nunnery.
gave the Lordships of Wiggedon and Brandon, with other lands. So liberal to the Church was Isabella de Fortibus! But she was by no means a slave to superstition, nor disposed to be defrauded of her just rights by rapacious ecclesiastics. From her ancestors she had derived the patronage of all the Religious Foundations that had sprung from their zeal and devotion, and not one jot of her rights would she yield to abbot or prior!
Thus, we find that in the seventh year of the reign of the first Edward (1279,) the Abbot of Quarr made complaint to the parliament that she with-held from his Abbey certain lands which had belonged to it of old; whereupon King Edward issued a precept to the Sheriff of Hampshire, William de Brayboeuff, commanding him to take the Abbey and its lands into the royal protection until the dispute should be concluded. These monks seem to have had a wholesome dread of the lady Isabel! The convent of Breamore also (1301) came into collision with its patroness, and suffered such losses in the strife, that Edward I. besought John de Pontissera, Bishop of Winchester, to confer upon it the church of Brading, in consideration of " its great sufferings, sustained chiefly by means of the Lady Isabella Fortibus." Unhappy monks! She* claimed too, the right of nominating the Prior of Carisbrooke, and when a vacancy occurred in the Priory of Christchurch, she assumed the right of retaining its lands in her own power.
"While she thus at one time endowed the Church, at another asserted her own authority, she was not unmindful of the welfare of her subjects. To encourage commerce, and for the better promotion of the trade of the island, she established a new borough,* in the vicinity of her Castle—then called Medina, now known
*A charter had been granted by Baldwin de Redvers of which no trace remains. In the original Latin of the Charter granted by Isabel de Fortibus she calls it " novo burgho de Medina"—her new Borough of Medina.
as Newport. The privileges she granted were extensive : thus, " she confirmed to the Burgesses of her new burgh of Medina" the right of levying the theolonium, a toll paid by those who sold goods in the market, and " all such other customs as were common to free burgesses." Namely: liberty of trade protected by their lord, to whom each citizen paid a yearly rent; to pay this rentier mamim suam, i. e. through officers of their own election; to receive toll for all goods sold in the town; to hold markets, fairs and fisheries. The burgesses of Medina also possessed the liberty of levying— what I may term a harbour-tax—a duty on vessels anchoring in the river Medina; a duty still levied by the town of Cowes. In the Charter of Franchise I have referred to, she also grants to " my aforesaid Burgesses that they may be quiet and free from County (sciris) and Hundred Courts (hundredis),. that they may have commonage of pasture for all their cattle in my lands in Parkhurst beyond the Wood free as relates to herbage for ever, .that all pleas (placitum) which belong to me in the said borough may be pleaded among themselves, and fines thence originated may be amerced and taxed by themselves, .that no one shall be a steward or bailiff, but he whom the said burgesses by common election and assent shall choose."† Other stipulations follow, which I reserve—with a fuller account of the rise and growth of this important borough—to the concluding chapters of my History. And I have introduced these brief extracts not so much as illustrations of the character of Isabel de Fortibus, as of the spirit of an Age, when the middle class was silently but steadily growing into power and importance, and the clothier's yard was becoming more potent than lance of knight or sword of baron.
† I have translated here only the more salient points of the Charter.
THE LAST DAYS OF ISABELLA DE FORTIBUS.
BY her husband, "William de Fortibus, Earl of Albemarle, the Countess had had three sons.. John, Thomas, and William, who all died young and without issue; and two daughters, Avice and Aveline. The latter alone surviving, became sole heiress of the wealth, power, and possessions of the Earls of Devon and the Lords of the Isle of "Wight. She was married twice: first to one Ingram de Percy, and, after his death, to Edmund, surnamed Crookback, the second son of Henry III. During her minority, her wardship had been granted to Richard, Earl of Gloucester; and, after his speedy surrender of the onerous charge, to Edmund Crookback— who, as we have seen, changed the wardship of the wealthy heiress into a tenderer relation.
Now, the far-seeing Plantagenet, Edward I.—one of the wisest monarchs that ever swayed the English sceptre—considering the Isle of Wight too important a possession to remain independent of his rule, or to exist as the domain of one of his barons—resolved to attach it to the crown. He attempted, at first, to purchase its reversion of this Lady Aveline and her husband, offering them the grant of a considerable estate and a sum of 20,000 marks (about £13,000), for the assurance of this important appanage. It must be remembered that Henry I. had granted the Lordship of the "Wight to William de Redvers so fully and freely, that the Crown had no authority in the island. I^one of its manors were held of the Crown. Its military and judicial power rested with its Lords. It is not surprising, therefore, that the astute Edward saw in its continued independence a source of trouble to the monarch, and danger to the security of the kingdom. However, this treaty was voided by the premature death of Aveline ; and the king was constrained to wait its cession from the hands of the Countess Isabel, a few hours before her decease, for the sum of 6000 marks.
In 1293, the Countess lay at her palace of Stockwell, near Lambeth, in Surrey. She was now rapidly approaching the termination of her splendid career, still of " good and perfect mind and memory." Her will was as strong, her energy as fresh, as in her prime; and she appears to have been much engaged in transactions relative to the disposal of her valuable inheritance. Her lawful heir was of distant kindred —Hugh Courtney, great grandson of Mary, the daughter of William de Vernon, and Baron of Oakhampton. It is possible, therefore, that this distant relationship might not be considered by the Countess as affording him any strong claim upon her generosity.
The Records of the Parliament held at Lincoln, in 1316, supply us with full and curious particulars of the Last Days of the great Countess. For after her decease, Hugo Courtney prosecuted his claim to the Earldom of Devon; and, succeeding in his object, proceeded to dispute the right of the Crown to the Lordship of the Island, asserting that the deed of conveyance was a fraud, or fraudulently obtained. Whereupon in the eighth year of Edward II., a writ was issued to the King's Treasurers and Chamberlains, " We command you, that having made search in books, charts, rolls, and other muniments existing in our treasuries and your guardianship, you do render an account, super jure nostro, as to our right to the aforesaid lands and tenements, how, in what manner, and for what reason these lands and tenements came into the hands of Edward, late king of England, our Father." In the following year, the necessary report was made. I shall not weary my Readers with all its verbiage, but shall simply seek to place before them a resume" of the singular circumstances attending the death of Isabella de Fortibus—as a striking picture of the manners and customs of the Age.
Now it happened, that in the early part of the year 1293, the Countess of Albemarle, Lady of the Isle of Wight, was progressing to Canterbury; and when she had reached a " certain manor of Sutton beyond Dartford," she fell sick, and thereupon dispatched a messenger to command the presence of her Confessor, William of Gainsborough. For the brave Lady, despite her quarrels with rapacious monks, was not insensible to the consolations of the Church. Then, being desirous of seeing the King at London, she moved forward by slow stages, accompanied by her faithful servants, to her mansion "at Stokewell" where, unhappily, her malady grievously increased. So she straightway resolved to set her house in order, and being much solicited by the King to cede to him her fief of the Isle of Wight, and seeing that her heir was of very distant kindred, she was fain to comply with the monarch's wishes, and yield up the Island for a sum of 6000 marks. Many and long were the discourses held by the Lady and King Edward's Commissioners anent this important matter.
Therefore, upon the Monday before the Feast of St. Martin, in the year of grace 1293, "Walter, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, at the command of the Bishop of Durham, " made and wrote a certain charter in a certain garden, which in itself contained that Isabella de Eortibus, Countess of Albemarle yielded and surrendered to her Lord the King of England, the Isle of Wight, the manor of Christchurch and manor of Faukshall, with their appurtenances, and gave up all claim, for herself and her heirs, to her Lord the King and his heirs for ever. And this was done at the hour of noon.
Meanwhile, in her chamber lay the aged Countess, sorely stricken, and near unto her death. And surrounding her couch stood Brother William, her Confessor, administering those pious consolations which the Holy Catholic church enjoins. Geoffrey, her Chaplain, also waited upon her. Others too, were present: Gilbert de Knovill, her handmaid, Agnes de Mounteals; and many of the noble Lady's household, lamenting bitterly. And the noonday sun streamed in upon the chamber of death. And about two hours after noon, the Bishop of Durham entered into the presence of the dying Lady, and besought her whether she was willing to cede unto her Lord the King the domains whereof they had previously discoursed. Then, said the Lady Isabel, she would obey her sovereign's pleasure; and she requested the Bishop to prepare the necessary Deed or Charter. He speedily fetched the Scroll written out in the garden by the Bishop Walter, and read it aloud to the Countess, and enquired if she wished to affix her seal to the said Deed as it was then written. Such was her pleasure. So she commanded the aforesaid Agnes to bring her seal, and the deed was duly and solemnly confirmed. Thereupon she rested; nor was it until after the sun had set, and the night was dark in the skies, that Brother William—seeing that she grew very faint and weak—entreated her to make her Testament. So fatigued was the dying Lady, that at first she could not express her wishes. But about the hour of Vespers she made her will, and named her executors—communicating her desires by her fingers; and she appointed the Abbot of Quarr, the Prior of Breamore, the Prior of Christchurch, and Gilbert de Knovill. Then she rested in peace; until in the grey dawn of the new day, "between midnight and the morning," the Lady Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of Albemarle and Lady of the Isle of Wight, expired.
And they buried her at Breamore; and thus the Isle of Wight became an appanage of the Crown of England. though still of " good and perfect mind and memory." Her will was as strong, her energy as fresh, as in her prime; and she appears to have been much engaged in transactions relative to the disposal of her valuable inheritance. Her lawful heir was of distant kindred —Hugh Courtney, great grandson of Mary, the daughter of William <fe Vernon, and Baron of Oakhampton. It is possible, therefore, that this distant relationship might not be considered by the Countess as affording him any strong claim upon her generosity.